The effective and efficient conveyance of knowledge from an information source, such as a teacher, to an information repository, such as a student group or individual pupil, has been an obvious and long held objective in the educational community. Various diverse instructional methods have developed over the years in an attempt to attain this objective, from the rote learning once common in many Oriental cultures, to the question and answer "Socratorial" technique which is the fundamental basis for Western educational methods. With all such known educational methods, however, one concept is unchallenged, that is, human beings most effectively assimilate information when provided with visual images of the subject matter being conveyed.
Traditional instructional methods throughout the world have generally relied, at least initially, on the textbook, or its equivalent, to provide the student with visual images of the subject matter being taught. Standard textbooks, however, suffer from several inherent limitations. First, any visual information provided by a textbook is a two-dimensional static presentation, clearly inferior to the visual images possible with modern video technology. Secondly, with the textbook as a study vehicle, a student's assimilation of the subject matter is strictly limited by the reading ability of the particular student being taught.
Various video aids have been employed in the past to overcome traditional textbook limitations, such as the use of movies, slides, etc., as auxiliary vehicles to explain and highlight certain subject matter. Such video aids have also included television images, either via broadcast techniques, cable, or from accompanying video tape recorders. All such previously used video aids, however, lack the ability to be effectively utilized in an interactive manner to maintain student interest and creativity and also lack the ability to randomly access selected subject matter contained in the video material.
It is, therefore, a general object of the instant invention to provide an effective, and efficient, method for conveying information from an information source, to an information repository.
It is a further object of the instant invention to utilize the known advantages of visual presentation to effectively and efficiently convey information.
It is a still further object of the instant invention to utilize a video-based teaching strategy which greatly enhances the interactive nature of the information conveyance.
It is an additional object of the instant invention to provide a simple, but enormously effective, information conveyance method that virtually eliminates dependence on the traditional textbook in the teaching environment.
It is yet another general object of the instant invention to provide an inservice device for an instructor, wherein it is understood that an inservice device enhances an instructor's basic knowledge of a particular subject, which inservice device also functions as an effective teaching tool.